Colours and Patterns Of Ragdolls
Ragdolls are born ALL white with their colour coming in slowly and full colour isn’t reached until they are around 3 years old. So, most of the pictures you will see, especially of kittens, will be of a mostly white cat except for the points, which will have color. The Colours and Patterns of Ragdolls is pretty easy to understand once you get the hang of it.
COLOURS – There are 6 basic colours. Seal, Blue, Chocolate, Lilac, Red (also called Flame), and Cream. Some of these are diluted colours of the other.
SEAL, is a dark brown that’s almost black.
BLUE, (SEAL dilute) is a dark bluish grey.
CHOCOLATE, is best described as a chocolate brown.
LILAC, (CHOCOLATE dilute) is a noticeably lighter shade of blue/grey with a slight pinkish tinge.
RED or FLAME, is much like most red cats you’ve seen.
CREAM, (RED dilute) it a noticeably lighter shade of red.
OK, that sums up the COLOURS and leads us to the PATTERNS, where I think most of the confusion comes in….
PATTERNS – There are 5 basic patterns. Colourpoint, Mitted, Bicolor, Lynx (also called Tabby), and Tortie.
COLOURPOINT, is a cat of any of the colours mentioned above, that has just one colour on its body. Bear in mind that a colourpoint has a darker shade of its body colour on its POINTS. The points on a Ragdoll are its paw tips, tail, ears and face.
MITTED, is a cat much like the colourpoint and comes in Seal, Blue, Chocolate, Lilac, Red and Cream, but has white at some of the points. So a mitted Ragdoll has white on its front paw tips, white on its rear legs and as an added attraction, has a white chin and chest. The ears and tail are the same as described for the colourpoint.
BiCOLOUR, is a pattern of any of the colours mentioned above that has 2 distinct colours on its face. The colour on its ears and top of the head are the body colour, only darker, and with an inverted white “V” on the lower part of the face. A BICOLOUR Ragdoll has white legs and white on the face, with a body that may be mostly white with splashes of colour OR with solid colour covering the body.
LYNX or TABBY, is a pattern of any of the colours mentioned above, but has dark stripes of the same colour that’s on the body. But a Lynx Ragdoll has white inside its ears, and a reddish nose leather. LYNX Ragdolls ALSO combine patterns. There are Colourpoint and Mitted Lynx Ragdolls.
TORTIE, Is a pattern that’s gender specific. Only females will be Tortie. When a kitten has a Red father or mother and a Seal as the other parent, some of the female kittens will be Tortie. A Tortie Ragdoll has splashes of dark colour on her face and body that’s mostly Cream coloured. A BLUE CREAM is a female Ragdoll that had one Blue parent and one Red parent, but is really a Tortie.